


1x02 "Simpler Time"

by hanarmontana



Series: Armello: The Blood Of Sinners [2]
Category: Armello (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Fantasy, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanarmontana/pseuds/hanarmontana
Summary: River and Thane, discussing their childhood and how their father is now, reminisce about their youth; Jeremiah, Sylus and tagalong Barnaby escape by ship, confused as to what caused the attack back at the village.
Series: Armello: The Blood Of Sinners [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1334248
Kudos: 2





	1x02 "Simpler Time"

Thane had not seen her brother since she'd left the clan, and frankly she wasn't extremely happy to see him here now. They'd sort of grown apart over the years, mostly due to each ones personal relationship with their father. Thane, being the first born son, was clearly in line to be ruler of the Wolf Clan at some point down the road and while their father had tried to groom him for such a future, he had made it extremely clear that he wasn't at all interested. River, on the other hand, was delighted at the idea of leading the clan. She'd always been the scrapper between the two of them, and her father had always been amused by this and certainly supported his daughters interests, but he'd never really taken it seriously enough to even contemplate putting her in charge of the clan down the road.

What would the other clans think of him, he thought. Hell, what would his _own_ clan think of him? They'd laugh him to his deathbed. No, it had to be Thane. The power struggle between one sibling destined for it who didn't want it and one sibling who wanted it but couldn't have it, a struggle fueled by a father who didn't understand that things could be different if he simply allowed them to be, ultimately began to create friction between the siblings and the pair, who once had been so close as pups now could not be farther apart. Seeing him sitting on the log, sword on his hilt, armor glistening in the moonlight, River couldn't help but feel extremely irritated that once again her father had sent him here to try and make her do something, despite all her brash actions to prove she wanted nothing to do with either one of them.

"So dad sent you?" River asked, sitting next to Lorna, who was polishing her axe, not paying much attention to the conversation.

Thane chewed on a small piece of jerky and swallowed, looking up at his sister. He sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Yes, and believe me, I'm just as unhappy to be here as you are about me being here," Thane replied, "But he wants to make some wrongs right. He's planning an expansion into new territories, and he wants you to head up one of the new clans. I think...I think he might finally understand how hurt you were by his refusal, and frankly bizarre disdain, to allow you to be clan leader."

"So now I get leftovers, huh?" River asked, folding her arms.

"They're not leftovers, they're brand new colonies. He's giving you something related to what you want, and you know what, River, after father dies then perhaps we can exchange clans. You know I don't want to be in charge, I know you want to be in charge, there's no reason for us to continue to live lives that neither of us are happy about."

"I'm quite happy here, actually," River said, "I've managed to find a fairly comfortable way to live without fathers pathetic handouts to soothe my ego."

"Well, I think he's planning these expansions because he thinks he might not have much longer to live," Thane said, finishing his jerky and uncapping a small flask, taking a sip from it and wiping his mouth on his cloak before adding, "Like I said, just come home and speak with him. Despite putting me in charge, he's yet to be very forthcoming of his goals. It's best if you talk to him yourself. And after he's gone, we can always change things. Armello is...long overdue for change, you and I both know this."

Thane was making some good points, she couldn't ignore that. She also couldn't deny that she had missed her brother, ever since they'd started to be dragged away from one another. At first she felt annoyance at his presence but now she was beginning to feel glad to see him again. She looked at the fire and thought about when they were pups, and how much trouble they'd gotten into together, always being adventurous and daring beyond their years, and often putting their father into severe fits of fear for his children, when in reality he knew full well they could take care of themselves. She smiled to herself and shut her eyes, letting the fire warm her fur. Perhaps this was for the best.

* * *

The ship Sylus had was indeed an otter ship, that couldn't be denied.

It had clearly been built by otters, for otters, and this wasn't a bad thing. Jeremiah admitted that he'd rather be on an otter ship than a ship built by any other animal. After all, who knew the seas better than the animals who spent their lives in the water? Standing there, floating away into the open ocean and watching the smoke furl up from the town they'd just left behind, the screams still ringing out loud and clear into the night sky, Jeremiah couldn't help but feel like he shouldn't done something more. But he wasn't a fighter. He was a merchant, and that was all. He felt Barnaby tugging at his wing, and he winced.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay, it's alright, it'll heal. I just need to get it better bandaged," Jeremiah said, "What did you need?"

"What do you think that was?" Barnaby asked, now joining Jeremiah in watching the town burn from afar.

"I...don't know, Barns, I really don't," Jeremiah said, sighing, "Those rodents, they looked...sick. They looked...wrong. Their fur was dirty and their eyes were...discolored. I've never seen anybeast look like that."

"It's worse than you think," Sylus said, approaching from behind and seating himself on a barrel, scooping some fish eggs from a small tub in his hand and eating it, "And it won't simply be an isolated incident. It's happened in a few small plain towns, but nothing like that large a scale before. You're not wrong, Jeremiah, they _are_ sick. They have what's being called The Rot."

"What's The Rot?" Barnaby asked.

"An illness of some kind that eventually drives anybeast who contracts it completely mad. As of now, nobody of any seeming importance has gotten it. It seems to be mostly stuck to bandits and other such lowlife vermin. But...that all could change in the blink of an eye if we're not careful. A pandemic could easily be upon us, and who knows, before long a king could be sick. That would lead to trouble for the entire country."

"So what do we do now?" Jeremiah asked.

"We lay low and we find the item I requested," Sylus said, screwing the lid back on top of the jar of fish eggs.

"What?!" Jeremiah said, rather confused and annoyed, "Really? We're still going to do that even with what we just saw? Why?!"

Sylus sighed and furrowed his brow, before saying, "Because it's going to fix The Rot."

* * *

"And what if I get home and it's just the same old garbage that he used to spew at me?" River asked, "What then?"

"Then we walk away, the both of us, together," Thane said, "Like we should've done before. I'm...not happy, with how things are, River. I don't like being in charge and I certainly don't like not having my sister with me. A sister, honestly, far more capable of doing what I'm doing right now than I am. A sister that, anyone could acknowledge if they just saw it, would be a wonderful leader. So if he tries to drag you back in with false promise, then we both leave, and we...start our own clan."

"...you'd do that for me?" River asked.

"It's what I should've done before. Things have gotten so much worse since you've left, really. Thank goodness I have the knights guard to train other wolves, because I'm certainly not the least bit experience with such a thing. I'm not a fighter. You're the fighter. Hell, you're even fighting father now, albeit metaphorically."

This made River laugh a little, as she pulled her tail up into her lap and played with the tip, her ears laying back flat.

"I don't know, the whole thing sounds so-"

"I think you should do it," Lorna said, finally butting in and surprising the both of them; she quickly added, "I mean, I understand questioning your fathers methods, believe me, I don't want to be out here learning how to fight myself. But if it sounds like he's really willing to try and make amends, to put you both in the proper place you belong to, then I think he deserves to at least be heard out if nothing more. You don't even have to go through with it, like Thane said, you could turn and walk away again. In fact, if anything, you'd have the upper hand here because now he knows for a fact that you leaving isn't just a bluff, since you've done it once already."

"...she has a good point," Thane said, "Though I have to admit I wasn't expecting her to, but she does. River, just come with me, okay? We can make things better again. Like mom wanted it to be."

God. Mom. Neither of them spoke of their mother, mostly for the fact that even bringing her up started to make their pain swell inside of them, their hearts ache with a hurt they had long since pushed down in an attempt to ignore it. But Thane was right. It's what mom would have wanted, ultimately. She was nothing if not supportive of both her children doing what they thought they were best at and, more importantly, being a strong wall that stood together, defending one another. River sighed and nodded, recognizing she'd likely regret it but had to nonetheless, if for nobody else but mother.

"Alright," she said, "Alright, we'll go home. I..." she turned and glanced at Lorna, "I hope that isn't a problem. We can take you back to your father immediately after, I promise."

"I'm in no rush, please don't think of me as anything other than a tag along," Lorna said, smiling as she clicked her axe to the back of her armor.

The four of them stood, gathered their things and headed off into the early morning darkness, back towards home.

She wondered how much had changed since she'd been gone.

* * *

Sylus, down in his personal bunker on the ship, the door latched securely behind him, sat on the small cot and exhaled.

It'd been a trying few days, and he certainly hadn't expected The Rot to reach the bigger towns by now. Things were moving way faster than he'd anticipated. He rolled up his sleeves and looked at the scars on his arms, his paws rugged and warn from years of wielding weapons he shouldn't have had to wield. Sylus was at the point now where he wanted a quiet life; a life that allowed him to settle down with a mate, perhaps raise a pup of his own, and maybe start a farm. Something simple. Instead, here he was, in the bottom of a boat trying to save the world with magic that, quite frankly, he wasn't even sure how it worked or if it was attainable. When had it come to this. The Rot had only appeared a few months prior, how had it spread this fast? He growled to himself and laid down on the cot, staring at the map pinned to the ceiling overhead, little tacks in each spot The Rot had been found in. It was heading North. Rapidly, at that. He was going to have to find a way to stop it before it reached the major clans, especially Wolf Clan. If the leader of Wolf Clan were to come down with The Rot...god. That would be the end of them all.

He had the largest army this side of Badger Clan, and he was a fierce king when he needed to be. He would destroy everyone, lay waste to anything in his path, and that path would of course lead to nothing more complete and total destruction of the land entirely. Sylus shivered at that thought. No, he wouldn't allow it to come to that, he couldn't. He had sworn to eradicate The Rot before it managed to gain a real foothold, but it appeared to have that foothold now. So at this point, his only course of action was to try and stop it before it got even worse, and that amount of pressure scared him, not that he'd ever admit it to another beast. He had to be stoic. He was Sylus, after all. The things he'd been through had earned him a reputation for being the strongest otter in the country, and a force to be reckoned with at times.

He heard a knock on the door and slowly got up to open it, finding Jeremiah standing there.

"Can I help you?" he asked softly.

"I need you to bandage my wing, please," Jeremiah replied.

Sylus sighed and stepped aside, allowing the crow merchant to enter.

"Have a seat," Sylus said, so Jeremiah sat on the bed while Sylus dug out his first aide supplies and got to work.

"...Can I ask you something?" Jeremiah said, but when Sylus didn't respond he merely continued anyway, "Um...does the kid have to be with us? Let's face it, neither of us are really the nurturing type, plus it probably won't exactly be safe either for someone of his age. I mean, Barnaby is smart as a whip, he's the best inventor I've seen in ages and he's more than half the age of all the others, but he's a child, still."

"He got no family?" Sylus asked, gauze in his mouth as he kept working.

"No, no...his family was killed when he was a babe," Jeremiah said, looking down at his talons, "I always made a habit of dropping in and checking on him when I was in town, so I guess I'm the closest thing to a parental figure as he has these days. Thank goodness I was around today, otherwise he might've joined his parents...but I can't think that way. I can't allow myself to think about him coming to harm. Why do you even _need_ me? You know where it is, you know what it is, you know what your goals are, why not just let me and the kid off and we'll ride out this Rot thing until-"

"Because there's not going to be a riding it out option. You want to not catch The Rot? You want to see that kid grow up? You need to stick with me. You leave my side, you'll die, and not because of me either. Because all that's out there right now is death. It's spreading far and wide and fast, and I'm going to stop it. I need you, Jeremiah, because you're the only one who is willing to help me. You get me that item and I'll make sure the kid doesn't come to harm. After that's done, we go our separate ways if you'd like, but trust me...you'll _never_ be safe."

"...what...what's happening out there, Sylus?" Jeremiah asked, his voice shaky as Sylus finished bandaging his wing.

"...it's the end of the world, crow."


End file.
